


Review of the Doctor Who episode Hide

by shadowkat67



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode Related, Episode Review, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-21
Updated: 2013-04-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:28:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22380319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowkat67/pseuds/shadowkat67
Relationships: The Doctor & Clara Oswin Oswald





	Review of the Doctor Who episode Hide

. **Doctor Who Episode - Hide** \- one of the better Doctor Who episodes to date, which admittedly surprised me, because people were comparing it to the Rings of Achteung episode, which I did not like. [ETA: Apparently the same writer wrote both. Oh well, we're all granted one bad episode after all.] This one was much much better written. Hard to tell it was from the same writer - the two episodes are nothing alike. It's actually my favorite of this season, so far.

  
Had the lead actress from Call the Midwife in the guest role of the psychic, which I admittedly struggled a bit with - since I'm not crazy about this particular actress, no idea why. Also there were a few, not many heavy-handed emotional scenes that felt...trite and unnecessary, but other than that - it worked for me.

Also there was a brief blurb on the new Tardis and how they made the entry-way shorter. Feels longer to me somehow. So maybe I misheard them?

Rather like Clara and the actress playing her. [The actress has huge eyes, by the way, like out of a magna comic book (which always puzzled me, why do all the characters in Magna comics have huge round eyes? That's a separate discussion. ) She's also short. Why are they always so short? ~~Can't they find tall actresses to play the companion?~~ [ETA: Apparently they can, but Karen Gillian just doesn't look that tall on camera, neither for that matter does Katie Holmes. While Catherine Tate struck me as tall as does Alex Kingston.] I know, I know...the sets are tiny, so it is actually easier with a shorter actress, plus the actor's playing the Doctor aren't that tall. ] Also she's quite funny, great comic timing. Her interaction with the Doctor regarding hunting down the ghost, made me laugh.

Doctor: Let's go hunt a ghost.  
Clara: And why would I want to do that?  
Doctor: Because you do.  
Clara: Really don't.  
Doctor: Come on, where's your sense of adventure?  
Clara (raises an eyebrow).  
Doctor tilts his head towards the door.  
Clara studiously ignores the gesture.  
Doctor: I'm making that face.  
Clara sighs and follows.

Usually they are running off ahead of him, and he's telling them not to go do that. Clara seems to be a bit brighter.

The writer ( ~~Matt Davis?~~ Neil Cross) has clearly either watched or read Shirly Jackson's the Haunting of Hill House one too many times - there are several shout-outs to it, the knocking, the equipment, the psychic, the clutching of Clara's hand and not by the Doctor.

I agree with people on my flist - less characters and a more contained story works better. It tends to be tighter and easier to tell in 43 minutes.

Also, the switch from ghost story to time-traveler tale, and tale of two lovers separated by a dimension, was deftly done. The latter two tales are directly related to the Doctor's story. The Professor and Emma meeting their grown-up granddaughter in a space-suit who is a time traveler - reminds me a bit of Amy and Rory meeting Dr. River Song. It's a clear corollary. The Time Traveler being caught in a pocket dimension in an old Victorian House, in a white space-suite - reminds me of Silence in the Library - or the Doctor having to save her by placing her in another dimension, but being forever cut off from River - in much the same way that he is forever cut off from Rose Tyler. (Although a doppleganger of the Tenth Doctor, who is human, is currently in that universe with Rose.) Add to that the two creatures trying to reach each other - trapped in two separate dimensions - remniscent of the Doctor =Amy and Rory, and to a degree the Doctor = River Song (when she dies and goes permanently to the Library).

Emma also comments to Clara that she should be wary of the Doctor, who has a sliver of ice in his heart. Clara is faced with that sliver when she asks him how he can be so unaffected by the fact that he just saw Earth's birth and death in five minutes. The Doctor looks confused and shrugs. Are we just all ghosts to you? We must be, she tells him. Which in truth is what Clara is to the Doctor - a ghost. And may explain why the Tardis reacts somewhat coldly to her - as well. Neither can quite figure her out. She keeps dying. Yet reappears. He asks Emma what she is - and Emma states, confused, a normal, ordinary, living girl like herself. Yet, is she? Or is she like the time traveler they rescue?

And...when one travels through time, can one be unaffected by it? The Professor mentions the temporal shifts and discrepancies, which the Doctor states can be corrected. But he admits he can't change time or what happens exactly. And yes, you are affected, you do become slightly callous - watching people you love disappear. Grow old. Die. Over and over again. That must have an effect on you over time. There are some things you can run from after all, but not time - you can't run from the temporariness of things. Which in a way is what the Doctor is trying to do, run away from time, but it keeps catching up to him.

Everything ends, Clara states, depressed. Not love, states Emma. Love lasts. And the Doctor tells Clara that the story they are in is not a horror tale, not a ghost story, but a love story...which he goes off to fix, reuniting the lovers with the help of the Tardis - at great risk to them both.

Interesting episode. Loved the way it handled the multiple themes without being too heavy-handed or too intellectual about any of them. Better balanced than the others.  



End file.
